Kang faces old KBO foe for 1st time in MLB

Pirates third baseman singles off 'best friend' Ryu in third at-bat

April 27th, 2019

LOS ANGELES -- Jung Ho Kang and Hyun-Jin Ryu have known one another for a long time. The two played against each other for nine seasons in Korea’s KBO. However, they’d never faced each other in an MLB game -- not until the Pirates’ 6-2 loss to the Dodgers on Friday night at Dodger Stadium.

What did Kang think about matching up with his old friend?

“I definitely do want to do well for [the team],” said Kang through a translator prior to the game. “But if I do too well, then Ryu’s going to say bad words [to] me.”

All told, it was Ryu who stole the show on Friday, holding the Pirates to two runs in seven innings as the offense failed to get going once again and the club dropped its sixth straight game. But Kang had one moment of triumph against a man he describes as “one of [his] best friends.”

It wasn’t in his first at-bat, in the top of the second, when he became one of Ryu’s 10 strikeout victims. It wasn’t in his second at-bat, in the fourth inning, when he grounded out to third base. It happened Kang’s third and final time facing Ryu, when he worked the count full before lining a two-out single into left field in the sixth. Ryu, usually fairly stoic on the mound, appeared visibly displeased about giving up the hit, which came on a cutter.

"That pitch, I couldn't command and at that particular moment,” said Ryu. “That's why I reacted like that."

Over the course of their careers, it’s been Ryu who’s had the edge. According to Korean outlet MBC Sports Plus, Kang was 5-for-30 against Ryu in the KBO with one home run, which came in Ryu’s final KBO start in 2012. But that was nearly seven years ago, and both players have been through much since -- hence why it took them so long to face each other in the United States.

Ryu missed the entire 2015 season -- Kang’s first year in the Majors -- due to left shoulder surgery, and he made just one start in 2016. A December 2016 DUI in Korea led to Kang’s visa being revoked, which kept him from playing in 2017. When he was reinstated from the restricted list in June 2018, he was sent to Triple-A and appeared in just three games for the Pirates at the end of the season.

Odds are good that the next time Kang and Ryu square off, it’ll be much sooner than seven years from now. Perhaps it’ll even happen when the Pirates host the Dodgers in May. But even when facing a longtime buddy, Kang prefers to look at the big picture.

“Many people expected to have a great game for today, but it’s just one of the 162 games,” said Kang. “[But] Ryu is my friend [since] I was young, and I want to have a good [game against] him.”

Another reunion

Kang and Ryu weren’t the only old friends brought together by Friday’s game. Cole Tucker was reunited with Cody Bellinger, a childhood pal from Arizona.

Though no player in baseball is off to as hot a start as Bellinger, Tucker has had a pretty good first week in the Majors. When he went hitless in Friday’s game, it was the first time that he didn’t manage to record a hit while in the starting lineup.